As a comment to my post "Jerome Gambit: Thematic and Aggressive", chessfriend quickturtle wrote
By far the BEST regular chess opening blog on the web...... this opening is dangerous to the person underestimating it's traps.
I greatly appreciate his kind words. It is hard to find a suitable response, other than "Thank you" and "I think you understand the Jerome Gambit".
Perhaps I could also add that putting this blog together has been enjoyable and educational, from the first post, "Welcome", on June 10, 2008, to thinking about the next one - which should be #2,450.
I have had the opportunity to meet many players from around the world, through their comments, emails, games and annotations. That has given my work a richness that I greatly value.
Explaining "what this blog about" takes some doing. Not quite 5 years ago I gave a rather detailed "justification" (some might say "explanation") for playing the Jerome Gambit. It continued across several posts, starting with "It's hard to explain..."
It's worth re-reading.
Rich,
I finally got a chance to send you a game with the Jerome. I played this on FICS and it further gives me the courage to play this in one of the upcoming G/30 events we will soon be having. Of course, if you put this in Rybka or Fritz, it will more than likely show you a million mistakes I played. Either way, it was fun :). Take care...
Quentin a.k.a- "Knaaky" or "Quickturtle"
Knaaky on FICS.
knaaky - Demidjinn
blitz. FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8
A practical defensive line named after Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, who mentioned it in his 1874 analysis, and who played it in two correspondence games against Daniel Jaeger in 1880.
7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6 9.Nc3 Qe7 10.d3 h5
Black, the higher rated player, is not intimidated by the Jerome Gambit. He has returned one of the two sacrificed pieces, and now considers using his Rook at h8 as an attacking piece.
Knaaky quickly realizes that the move further weakens the dark squares in Black's position, loosens things up around the Black King, and suggests Queenside castling, with an attack.
11.Bg5 Bg4 12.h3 Be6 13.f4 Kf7
Perhaps hoping to castle-by-hand toward the Queenside, but things develop too quickly to permit that.
14.e5 dxe5 15.fxe5 Bf5 16.0-0-0
As happens more often than one might expect, Black has not made any glaring errors, yet the game has turned in White's favor. Demidjinn tries to mix things up a bit.
16...Ba3 17.exf6 Bxb2+ 18.Kxb2 Qb4+ 19.Kc1 Qxc3 20.fxg7 Rhe8
21.Rhf1
I once read a humorous article about the art of annotating that suggested that in any position where either Rook could be played to a square, the annotator could feel safe commenting "wrong Rook" regardless of which one moved. In this case, although neither player noticed, the better move was 21.Rdf1.
21...Re2
Continuing to attack, overlooking the opportunity to force a draw with 21...Qa3+ 22.Kb1 Qb4+ etc.
22.Rxf5+ Kg8 23.Rf8+ Rxf8 24.gxf8Q+ Kxf8 25.Qf3+ Black resigned
Reader quickturtle must have been browsing back posts on this blog recently (something that I highly recommend, by the way: there are almost 1,300 of them; you can use the "search this blog" Google gadget if you are looking for something special) as he posted a comment to "A Jerome Gambit 'Challenger' ", my tale of a Jerome Gambit-tinged battle against the venerable Chess Challenger 7 chess computer.
Because his comment hints at future adventures, I reprint it here:
Rick, this was a wonderful game and analysis. I still have to give the CC7 a lot of credit considering it's age and the limited amount of info those old machines had. I still have a Fidelity Designer 2100 and a Novag Super Expert and now I'm going to pull them out of the closet and give the Jerome a shot with them :)
Good luck against those silicon dinosaurs, quickturtle.
Be careful, too: remember those "Jurassic Park" movies!
